In performing arts, comedy is one of the most important genres when it comes to plays. Comedy involves humorous discourse aimed at amusing people. Comedy can be divided into various sub genres depending upon the delivery method.

Deadpan or dry humor and Slapstick are two such sub genres of comedy. Slapstick comedy involves usage of exaggerated acts or violence exceeding the boundaries of common sense in order to evoke laughter among the audience. It is one of the common forms of humor used in live plays in order to have an added effect on the viewers. It dates back to the renaissance era and it has been a part of almost all genres of comedy and is still an important part of the modern comedy.

Deadpan Comedy is another subgenre of comedy where the person delivers a comic dialogue without any apparent change in his emotion, expression or body language with a casual, solemn monotone. In this form of comedy, the intent of the dialogue will be comic but not its presentation as compared to slap stick comedy. One can find a lot of deadpan comedy or dry humor in the performances of standup comedians. The standup comedians while performing in front of live audience sometimes makes use of props, magic tricks and music in addition to dry humor to evoke laughter among the audience. The timing of jokes needs to be perfect, which only comes with hundreds of hours of live practice.